The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE), the producers of the Smart Manufacturing Conference: (www.peie.blogspot.com), scheduled to be held at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel on January 23 – 24 2006, announced today the addition of three new speakers to the conference line-up. Adrian and Pam McCarthy are UK-based business, leadership and executive development specialists and will join sessions on innovation and marketing.

Currently, the McCarthys are working with one of the UK’s leading research universities, focused on developing new best practice in entrepreneurial leadership. Essex University is the first university in the UK to have a School of Entrepreneurship and Business and according to Pam McCarthy “is set to redefine world-class standards in this area.” Sunil Varughese, Brand Strategy Director at Brand Indigo LLC has been added to the Design Driven Strategies: Increase Manufacturing Opportunities session scheduled for the first day of the conference.

The Smart Manufacturing Conference is to be an annual event organized by PEIE. “This new and innovative program has been designed specifically to bring manufacturers, entrepreneurs, marketers, finance and IT professionals together to examine issues aimed at helping small and medium-sized Gulf-based manufacturers become progressively more successful in their marketplace,” remarked Hisham Al Zubaidi, PEIE’s Marketing Director. In particular, the two-day programme will focus on marketing, innovation, product design, lean enterprise, the realities of global competition and the importance of technology to the manufacturing sector. According to the organizers, the event has attracted speakers from Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The conference will be held under the patronage of HE Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chairman, PEIE, and the keynote address will be delivered by Professor Mike Gregory CBE, Executive Director, Cambridge-MIT Institute. Professor Gregory is also Head of Manufacturing and Management Division in Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering and Fellow of Churchill College. “He has served on a range of institutional and government committees including currently theUK’s Department of Trade and Industry’s Manufacturing Forum. Professor Gregory is also Chairman of the British Manufacturing Professors Forum. We’re delighted to have someone of Professor Gregory’s stature present at Smart Manufacturing,” remarked PEIE’s Ibtisam Al Faruji.

Commenting on the introduction of additional speakers, Al Faruji said: “After reviewing the excellent feedback we’ve received on the conference, we decided to make some changes to our sessions and expand the programme.” She added: “The new topics, which offer additional coverage on innovation and marketing in manufacturing, have been developed with the help of the presenters themselves, and we feel that attendees will benefit from their experience.”

In addition to the two-day conference, PEIE will host a bonus Lean Enterprise Workshop at Knowledge Oasis Muscat on 25 January, this will be delivered by Mark Eaton, former Director of the UK’s Manufacturing Advisory Service.